To most people these two concepts are the same thing, but there is a subtle difference. My take on this is that PR (public relations) is about building relationships with your audience, talking directly to them and sharing information both ways. Marketing is all about getting your product under the audience’s nose to try and get them to buy it, or use the service you’re offering.
As I work in PR (and have studied the theory behind the practise) I find this element much easier. Talking to people and sharing information simply works more easily for me than the hard sell, but this is partly down to my personality. For instance, when I published my debut crime novel A Deadly Rejection I found it very difficult to actually tell people about the finished product and say ‘go and buy it’. It felt very uncomfortable. Why? Probably because this style doesn’t suit me.
Talking to people, creating a dialogue (another feature in PR theory) comes much more naturally. I like to talk and share information. This makes my blog and social media the perfect way for me to engage with my audience. By creating a platform, I am, however, engaging in content marketing. This is definitely a form of marketing, but it’s a form that sits nicely with me. Yes, I’m still putting myself and my book in front of you and hoping that you’ll buy it, but I do this by making sure you’re getting something else from me in return. I’d like to this that my blog gives other writers inspiration and introduces readers to other writers. If it inspires someone who wants to write into actually starting, then my day is made. If any of the people who read my blog enjoy it enough to go and buy my book, then my work here is done.
But this is where PR becomes more hard work. This is a dialogue, remember, and so I’d hope to hear back from my readers. This can be through Twitter, where I’m quite active, through commenting on the blog or most importantly reviewing my book on Amazon. This feedback is vital for me to make sure that I’m giving my readers what they want. Once I start hearing back from readers then it’s for me to respond to them to maintain that relationship. So as you can see PR isn’t just about starting relationships, it’s about maintaining them too. It can take years to build up a good reputation, but no time at all to ruin it. A bad book or a public scandal (hopefully none of you will be involved in either of those) and your reputation is at best tarnished, at worst destroyed. You only have to look at how quickly a boy band’s reputation is ruined if they’re linked to drugs.
But it’s important to remember that PR and marketing are intrinsically linked. Without building relationships you’re coming into your marketing cold – and remember how much we all like cold callers! But just building relationships isn’t enough if you want to sell a product. You have to be prepared to push your product out there.
A novel is a very personal product. You’ve spent years writing, editing, perfecting and publishing, and it really does feel like you’re pushing part of yourself out there. Hopefully, if you’ve got your relationship building right, then it won’t feel like cold calling and your reception will be warm.
So, hopefully the years I’ve put into creating and maintaining my platform will mean that when people see A Deadly Rejection, they’ll be much more likely to go and buy it.
Well, what are you waiting for?